A blog of our adventures around the world as location-independent digital nomads.

September 18, 2015

Montreal Days 4-6: Bird Strike Conference

This post is written by Katie, about her time in Canada for the 15th Annual North American Bird Strike Conference.

The 15th Annual North American Bird Strike conference was the main reason I had travelled to Montreal. Hence, for three days, my days primarily consisted for attending the conference from 8am to 5pm and resting/relaxing/cooking in the evenings.

My 30 minute presentation was on the first day, right before lunch. This was excellent, as the room was full and people were able to approach me over the following 2.5 days with questions and comments. Many, many people interacted with me over the following days from a variety of backgrounds. This was one of the most helpful conferences I have been to, and right before my PhD proposal was an excellent time to interact with this tangential community. I’m incredibly thankful that I was given the opportunity to present at this conference and that the other attendees of this conference were some open to my ideas and to discussing their experiences with me.

Goodies from my ‘speaker’s bag’

I did go explore the Latin Quarter on the second night, but I was disappointed with it. From what I saw, it was really no different than any other neighbourhood street with multiple cafés and bars. Perhaps I did not wander far enough, or was just too tired for a long conference day to put my entire self into exploring.

The conference was held at the fancy Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth (CAD219/night special rate before tax), but I just could not justify making the University of Texas foot that cost. During the conference I stayed a 10-15 minute walk away at HI-Montreal in a 2-bed female dorm that cost CAD40/night before tax. I actually never had a roommate, which was really nice! The carpet in the room was a bit tired and the fitted sheet was a bit loose, but otherwise everything was great! I utilized the basement kitchen every night, and my only complaints there were (1) only one spatula existed in the entire kitchen and (2) some of the stove burners did not work or would only periodically work. But overall, I would really recommend HI-Montreal if you want/need to stay in downtown Montreal.